For Immediate Release
March 09, 2015
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Mayors for the Freedom to Marry Submits Amicus Brief on Marriage to Supreme Court
Culver City – Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells joined 225 other Mayors in signing onto a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to end marriage discrimination nationwide. The brief includes Mayors from towns as small as Thompson, North Dakota, to the largest five cities in the nation, as well as the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the International Municipal Lawyers Association and the National League of Cities. In total, 226 mayors and 40 cities signed onto the brief, making it the largest compilation of mayors/cities from across the country to sign onto a Supreme Court amicus brief.
“We launched Mayors for the Freedom to Marry three years ago because mayors are closest to their constituents and communities and singularly able to make the case that marriage makes for stronger families and a more vibrant economy,” said Marc Solomon, national campaign director of Freedom to Marry. “We’re very proud of the 700 mayors who have been a part of Mayors for the Freedom to Marry over the three years of this campaign. This brief demonstrates the diversity of leaders across the country who know that America is ready for the freedom to marry and want the Supreme Court to bring our country to national resolution.”
“This national issue is also profoundly local, impacting the civil liberties of many Culver City residents” said Mayor Sahli-Wells, “I am honored to be part of this historic moment that helps to end years of discrimination, and affirm the basic civil right to love and have one’s love be recognized and treated equally under the law.”
Since its launch, Mayors for the Freedom to Marry has partnered with the United States Conference of Mayors to build and grow support. “It is time for marriage equality to be the law of the land,” said U.S. Conference of Mayors CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran. “It’s the right thing to do and that’s why the U.S. Conference of Mayors has joined this brief. Our organization adopted policy opposing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in 1984. In 2009 we adopted policy in support of the freedom to marry, and last June reaffirmed that policy and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that freedom to marry is the right of all Americans.”
The brief was authored by the City Attorney’s Office of Los Angeles and was filed at the Supreme Court Friday morning. It states: “Municipalities, as the level of government most closely connected to the community they serve, bear a great burden when a target sector of their populace is denied the right to marry. … When the freedom to marry is denied, municipalities are the first level of government to suffer the impact.”